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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


. 


THE  APISTOPHILON 


THE  APISTOPHILON 

(rov 


A   NEMESIS    OF    FAITH 


BY 

FRANK  D.  BULLARD,  A.  M.,  M.  D. 


CHICAGO 

R.  R.   DONNELLEY  y  SONS  COMPANY 
1899 


COPYRIGHTED,  1899 
Bv  FRANK  D.  BULLARD,  A.  M.,  M.  D. 


TO 

ROBERT  J.  BELFORD 


THERE   BLOOMS   AN   AMARANTH   WITHIN  THE   SOUL 
WHOSE   PLEASANT  PERFUME   FILLS  THE   GARDEN  FULL, 
MEN  CALL  THE  FLOWER  FRIENDSHIP,  AND  FOR  ITS  SAKE, 
BELFORD,  I   DEDICATE  TO  YOU  THIS  SCROLL. 


./c  f+tf+,*j 

/o7 

LIBRARY 


THE    APISTOPHILON 


Notes 


Recollection  is  the  only  Paradise  from  which  we  cannot  be 
turned  out.  RICHTER. 


II 

And  the  night  shall  be  filled  with  music 

And  the  cares  that  infest  the  day 
Shall  fold  their  tents  like  the  Arabs 

And  as  silently  steal  away. 

LONGFELLOW — The  Day  is  Done. 


Ill 

Ah,  happy  years !  once  more  who  would  not  be  a  boy. 

BYRON— Childe  Harold. 


Prologue 


When  crooning  winds  soft  in  the  gloaming  blow, 
And  lull  to  sleep  with  music  sad  and  low 
The  drooping  eyelids  of  the  drowsy  day, 
'Tis  sweet  to  dwell  upon  the  long  ago. 

II 

When  dreamy  reminiscence  fondly  cheers 
And  to  myself  my  former  self  appears, 
Then  fade  the  fretful  follies  of  the  day, 
And  fain  I  see  the  wraiths  of  yester  years. 

Ill 

First  skips  the  merry,  laughing,  careless  boy, 
Whose  untamed  spirit  bubbles  o'er  with  joy, 
Who  little  recks  the  laws  of  creed  or  school, 
— Ah,  his  the  heart  that  pleasure  could  not  cloy! 

9 


NOTES 


IV 

''Orthodoxy,  my  lord,"  said  Bishop  Warburton  in  a  whis 
per,  "orthodoxy  is  my  doxy — heterodoxy  is  another  man's 
doxy."  JOSEPH  PRIESTLEY — Memoirs. 


V 

I  stretch  lame  hands  of  faith,  and  grope 
And  gather  dust  and  chaff,  and  call 
To  what  I  feel  is  Lord  of  all, 

And  faintly  trust  the  larger  hope. 

TENNYSON — In  Memoriam. 


VI 

The  man  of  wisdom  is  the  man  of  years. 

YOUNG — Night  Thoughts. 


10 


PROLOGUE 


IV 

Then  firmly  treads  the  self-sufficient  youth, 
Sure  he  knows  all,  that  all  his  thoughts  are  truth, 
Firm  in  belief  that  he  is  orthodox, 
— That  blissful  fallacy  of  faith,  forsooth ! 


Then  comes  the  man  that  trusts  the  wider  hope, 
Who  tries  to  give  his  faith  a  broader  scope, 
Who  puts  a  mystic  meaning  to  his  creed, 
And  yearns  for  light  and  in  the  dark  doth  grope. 


VI 

Last  walks  with  care  he  of  the  riper  age, 
Who  studies  life  not  from  the  printed  page, 
But  cons  the  lessons  taught  in  Nature's  school, 
For  wisdom  is  the  Mecca  of  the  sage. 


NOTES 


VII 

To-day  is  not  yesterday:  We  ourselves  change;  how  can 
our  Works  and  Thoughts,  if  they  are  always  to  be  the  fittest, 
continue  always  the  same?  Change,  indeed,  is  painful,  yet 
ever  needful;  and  if  Memory  have  its  force  and  worth,  so  also 
has  Hope.  CARLYLE — Essays,  Characteristics. 


PROLOGUE 


VII 

The  Disbeliever,  Doubter,  Devotee, 
— The  Boy  from  all  such  quests  and  questions  free- 
Are  all  myself,  and  oft  in  argument 
I  hear  them  in  the  halls  of  Memory. 


Notes 


i 

And  the  earth  was  waste  and  void:  and  darkness  was  upon 
the  face  of  the  deep:  and  the  spirit  of  God  was  brooding  upon 
the  face  of  the  waters.  And  God  said,  Let  there  be  light: 
and  there  was  light. 

GENESIS  i :  2-3 — Revised  Version,  Marginal  Reading. 

II 

He  stretcheth  out  the  North  over  the  empty  place,  and 
hangeth  the  earth  upon  nothing.  JOB  26:7. 

He  sitteth  upon  the  circle  of  the  earth.    ISAIAH  40:22. 

And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  put  forth  grass,  herb  yielding 
seed,  and  fruit  bearing  fruit  after  its  kind,  wherein  is  the  seed 
thereof,  upon  the  earth:  and  it  was  so.  GENESIS  i:  1 1. 

Ill 

And  God  created  the  great  sea  monsters,  *  *  *  and 
every  winged  fowl  after  its  kind:  and  God  saw  that  it  was 
good.  And  God  made  the  beast  of  the  earth  after  its  kind. 

GENESIS  i :  21-25. 

And  the  Lord  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and 
He  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life;  and  man 
became  a  living  soul.  GENESIS  2:7. 

H 


The   Apistophilon 


THE  DEVOTEE:  I 

Ere  Time  was  born  there  was  but  empty  space, 
And  gloomy  darkness  filled  the  utmost  place ; 
But  when  God's  spirit  brooded  o'er  the  deep, 
Then  shone  the  light  made  splendent  by  His  Grace. 


II 

God  hung  the  earth  within  the  ambient  air, 
And  gave  to  land  and  sea  their  proper  share; 
Then  sat  He  on  the  circle  of  the  earth, 
And  bade  the  barren  dust  a  harvest  bear. 


Ill 

Then  fish  and  bird  and  brute  of  ev'ry  kind 
Created  were  by  fiat  of  His  mind, 
And  when  He  breathed  the  breath  of  life  in  man 
The  conscious  soul  was  then  in  him  confined. 


NOTES 


IV 

After  God  had  made  all  other  creatures,  he  created  man, 
male  and  female,  *  *  *  after  his  own  image,  having  the 
law  of  God  written  in  their  hearts,  and  the  power  to  fulfill  it; 
and  yet  under  a  possibility  of  transgressing,  being  left  to  the 
liberty  of  their  own  will,  which  was  subject  to  change.  Beside 
this  law  written  in  their  hearts  they  received  a  command  not  to 
eat  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil. 

WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION,  Chap.  4,  Sec.  2. 

V 

Our  first  parents,  being  seduced  by  the  subtlety  and  tempta 
tion  of  Satan,  sinned  in  eating  the  forbidden  fruit.  This  their 
sin  God  was  pleased,  according  to  his  wise  and  holy  counsel, 
to  permit,  having  purposed  to  order  it  to  his  own  glory. 

They  being  the  root  of  all  mankind,  the  guilt  of  this  sin 
was  imputed,  and  the  same  death  in  sin  and  corrupted  nature 
conveyed  to  all  their  posterity,  descending  from  them  by  ordi 
nary  generation. 

WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION,  Chap.  6,  Sec.  I,  3. 
• 

VI 

For  Christ  also  hath  once  suffered  for  sins,  the  just  for  the 
unjust,  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God,  being  put  to  death  in 
the  flesh,  but  quickened  by  the  Spirit.  I  PETER  3:18. 


16 


THE  APISTOPHILON 


IV 

His  fated  purpose  better  to  fulfill, 
God  gave  to  man  that  priceless  gift,  free-will ; 
Then  broke  he  faith  with  God,  to  learn  forsooth 
The  sorrow-knowledge  got  of  Good  and  111. 


Ah,  sad  it  is  that  in  the  Serpent's  sting 
There  lurked  the  virus  of  eternal  sin 
To  taint  the  blood  of  yet  unfallen  man  ! 
Still  worse  that  such  should  make  us  all  akin ! 


VI 

Thanks  be  to  God  before  whom  nations  kneel, 
That  sent  the  Great  Physician  man  to  heal, 
Whose  blood  upon  the  cruel  cross  was  shed, 
The  poison  from  the  wound  of  Sin  to  steal. 


NOTES 


VII 

For  if  the  word  spoken  through  angels  prove  steadfast,  and 
every  transgression  and  disobedience  received  a  just  recompense 
of  reward,  how  shall  we  escape  if  we  neglect  so  great  salvation? 

HEBREWS  2:2,  3. 

VIII 

The  common  doctrine  is,  that  the  conscious  existence  of 
the  soul  after  the  death  of  the  body  is  unending;  that  there  is 
no  repentance  nor  reformation  in  the  future  world;  that  those 
who  depart  this  life  unreconciled  to  God  remain  forever  in  this 
state  of  alienation,  and  therefore  are  forever  sinful  and  miser 
able.  This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  whole  Christian  Church,  of 
the  Greeks,  of  the  Latins,  and  of  all  the  great  historical  Protes 
tant  bodies.  HODGE — Systematic  Theology. 

IX 

By  the  decree  of  God,  for  the  manifestations  of  his  glory, 
some  men  and  angels  are  predestined  into  everlasting  life,  and 
others  foreordained  to  everlasting  death. 

WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION,  Chap.  3,  Sec.  3. 

As  God  appointed  the  elect  unto  glory,  so  hath  He,  by  the 
eternal  and  free  purpose  of  His  will,  foreordained  all  the  means 
thereunto.  Wherefore,  they  who  are  elected  being  fallen  in 
Adam,  are  redeemed  by  Christ. 

WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION,  Chap.  3,  Sec.  6. 
18 


THE    APISTOPHILON 


VII 

As  man  is  freely  offered  a  relief, 

How  can  he  justly  charge  to  God  his  grief 

If  he  neglects  so  great  a  remedy, 

And  spurns  that  only  balm  for  sin — belief? 

VIII 

Shall  pampered  Dives  never  feel  a  pain, 
Or  Lazarus  for  virtue  reap  no  gain  ? 
A  Hell  of  torment  or  a  Heaven  of  bliss 
Will  be  their  just  desert,  else  life  is  vain. 

IX 

And  when  I  think  but  for  His  saving  blood, 
I,  too,  were  doomed  to  meet  the  wrath  of  God, 
How  can  I  pay  the  debt  of  love  to  Him, 
Who  Calv'ry's  thorny  path  for  me  has  trod  ? 


NOTES 


X 

Now  to  condemn  all  mankind  for  the  sin  of  Adam  and 
Eve;  to  let  the  innocent  suffer  for  the  guilty;  to  keep  any  one 
alive  in  torture  forever  and  ever:  these  actions  are  simply  mag 
nified  copies  of  what  bad  men  do.  No  juggling  with  "  Divine 
justice  and  mercy"  can  make  them  anything  else. 

CLIFFORD — The  Ethics  of  Religion. 

XI 

This  must  be  said  to  all  kinds  and  conditions  of  men:  that 
if  God  holds  all  mankind  guilty  for  the  sin  of  Adam,  if  He  has 
visited  upon  the  innocent  the  punishment  of  the  guilty,  if  He  is 
to  torture  any  single  soul  forever — then  it  is  wrong  to  worship 
Him.  CLIFFORD — The  Ethics  of  Religion. 

XII 

Satan  is  a  scarecrow  set  up  by  the  clergy  in  the  spiritual 
vineyard.  RICHTER. 

Myself  am  Heaven  and  Hell.  OMAR  KHAYYAM. 


20 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


THE  DOUBTER:  A 

Oh,  shame  upon  that  petty  savage  God 
That  slakes  His  cruel  anger  in  the  blood 
Of  His  dear  Son,  the  gentle  Prince  of  Peace; 
'Twere  better  far  the  culprit  felt  the  rod. 

XI 

Out  on  the  foolish  fable  of  the  fall 
That  thro'  the  lapse  of  One  sin  came  to  all, 
Or  that  into  an  unearned  Heaven  of  bliss, 
We,  meanly,  thro'  Another's  merit  crawl. 

XII 

Myself  am  Heaven  or  myself  am  Hell; 
As  love  or  hate  within  my  bosom  dwell; 
My  weak  and  trembling  spirit  to  torment, 
No  grinning  demon  waits  the  parting  knell. 


21 


NOTES 


XIII 

The  cruelty  of  a  Fijian  god,  who,  represented  as  devouring 
the  souls  of  the  dead,  may  be  supposed  to  inflict  torture  during 
the  process,  is  small  compared  with  the  cruelty  of  a  God  who 
condemns  men  to  tortures  which  are  eternal:  and  the  ascrip 
tion  of  this  cruelty,  though  habitual  in  ecclesiastical  formulas, 
*  *  *  is  becoming  so  intolerable  to  the  better  natured, 
that  while  some  theologians  distinctly  deny  it,  others  quietly 
drop  it  out  of  their  teaching.  Clearly  this  change  cannot  cease 
until  the  belief  in  Hell  and  Damnation  disappear. 

SPENCER — Principles  of  Sociology. 

XIV 

But  neither  nature  nor  the  soul  bears  one  trace  of  three 
divine  persons.  Nature  is  no  Trinitarian.  It  gives  no  hint, 
not  a  glimpse  of  a  tri-personal  author.  *  *  *  The  sun 
and  stars  say  nothing  of  a  God  of  three  persons. 

CHANNING — Unitarian  Christianity. 

XV 

And  the  Gileadites  took  the  fords  of  Jordan  against  the 
Ephraimites:  and  it  was  so,  that  when  any  of  the  fugitives  of 
Ephraim  said,  Let  me  go  over,  the  men  of  Gilead  said  unto 
him,  Art  thou  an  Ephraimite?  If  he  said,  Nay,  then  said  they 
unto  him,  Say  now  Shibboleth;  and  he  said  Sibboleth:  for  he 
could  not  frame  to  pronounce  it  right:  then  they  laid  hold  on 
him,  and  slew  him  at  the  fords  of  Jordan.  JUDGES  i  2:  5,  6. 

22 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XIII 

The  day  of  awful  vengeance,  day  of  ire, 
The  crackling  furnace  of  a  Hell  of  fire, 
That  Coward-castle's  threat,  to  live  aright 
No  longer  minds  intelligent  require. 

XIV 

Fie  on  the  church  that  curses  with  its  ban, 
For  simple  unbelief  a  thinking  man ! 
Because  he  holds  that  three  times  one  are  three 
And  never  one,  is  he  forever  damned? 

XV 

Then  out  upon  the  narrow  selfish  view 
That  keeps  God's  blessings  for  a  favored  few, 
Who  chance  to  know  a  dogma's  shibboleth, 
And  ev'ry  Sabbath  fill  a  church's  pew. 


NOTES 


XVI 

Christ  came  to  give  us  a  religion — but  this  is  not  all.  By 
a  wise  and  beautiful  ordination  of  Providence  He  was  sent  to 
show  forth  His  religion  in  himself.  CHANNING. 

When  a  man  becomes  a  Christian  the  natural  process  is 
this:  The  Living  Christ  enters  into  his  soul.  Development 
begins.  The  quickening  Life  seizes  upon  his  soul,  assimilates 
around  the  elements,  and  begins  to  fashion  it,  according  to  the 
great  Law  of  Conformity  to  Type;  this  fashioning  takes  a 
specific  form. 

DRUMMOND — Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World 

XVII 

Jesus  founded  religion  in  Humanity,  as  Socrates  founded 
philosophy,  as  Aristotle  founded  science.  No  revolution  will 
lead  us  not  to  join  religion  to  the  grand  and  intellectual  and 
moral  life  at  the  head  of  which  beams  the  name, of  Jesus. 

RENAN — Life  of  Jesus. 

XVIII 

In  a  happy  world  there  must  be  sorrow  and  pain,  and  in  a 
moral  world  the  knowledge  of  evil  is  indispensable.  *  *  * 
We  do  not  find  that  evil  has  been  interpolated  into  the  universe 
from  without;  we  find  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  an  indispen 
sable  part  of  the  dramatic  whole.  God  is  a  creator  of  evil,  and 
from  the  eternal  scheme  of  things  diabolism  is  forever  excluded. 
FISKE — Through  Nature  to  God. 

24 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XVI 

When  to  God's  mind  the  time  was  fully  ripe 
From  human  eyes  the  tears  of  sin  to  wipe, 
He  sent  to  earth  His  Son,  the  Nazarene, 
To  show  the  human  race  the  perfect  Type. 

XVII 

• 

He  placed  the  warlike  eagle  'neath  the  dove, 
He  put  the  Golden  Rule  of  life  above 
The  sordid  maxims  of  a  selfish  age, 
And  showed  to  man  the  Father's  tender  love. 

XVIII 

The  many  evils  of  environment 
As  purging  fire  to  burn  out  dross  were  sent, 
For  thus  the  gold  of  life  must  be  refined, 
Nor  were  they  e'er  decreed  for  punishment. 


NOTES 


XIX 

In  religion 

What  damned  error,  but  some  sober  brow 
Will  bless  it,  and  approve  it  with  a  text. 

SHAKESPEARE — Merchant  of  Venice. 

XX 

We  know,  and  what  is  better  we  feel  inwardly,  that  reli 
gion  is  the  basis  of  civil  society,  and  the  source  of  all  good,  and 
of  all  comfort.  BURKE — French  Revolution. 

XXI 

And  one  of  the  malefactors  which  were  hanged  railed  on 
Him,  saying,  Art  thou  the  Christ,  save  thyself  and  us.  But 
the  other  answered,  and  rebuking  him,  said,  Dost  thou  not 
even  fear  God,  seeing  thou  art  in  the  same  condemnation? 
And  we  indeed  justly;  for  we  receive  the  due  reward  of  our 
deeds:  But  this  man  hath  done  nothing  amiss.  And  he  said, 
Jesus,  remember  me  when  thou  comest  in  thy  kingdom.  And 
He  said  unto  him,  Verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  to-day  shalt  thou 
be  with  me  in  paradise.  LUKE  23:39-42. 


26 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XIX 

Who  follows  right  in  hope  of  greater  gain, 
Who  shrinks  from  Sin  for  fear  of  future  pain, 
Who  only  bears  the  cross  to  wear  the  crown, 
Abstains  for  naught  and  labors  all  in  vain. 

XX 

'Twere  better  to  do  right  just  for  right's  sake, 
And  not  because  Fear  bids  the  spirit  quake, 
Yet  offered  prize  or  threatened  pain  ofttimes 
Of  careless  boys  much  better  pupils  make. 

XXI 

Did  aught  but  selfish,  craven  fear  induce 
The  thief  upon  the  cross  to  cease  abuse  ? 
Could  he  serve  Hell  and  at  the  last  repent, 
And  ride  to  bliss  on  such  a  lame  excuse  ? 


27 


NOTES 


XXII 

We  crave  to  have  the  supreme  hours  of  our  existence 
lighted  up  by  thoughts  and  motives,  such  as  we  can  measure 
beside  the  common  acts  of  our  daily  existence,  so  that  each 
hour  of  our  life  up  to  the  grave  may  be  linked  to  the  life  beyond 
the  grave  as  one  continuous  whole.  "Bound  each  to  each  in 
natural  piety." 

FREDERICK  HARRISON — The  Soul  and  the  Future  Life. 

XXIII 

Far  beyond  the  limits  of  our  visible  world  are  to  be  found 
atoms  innumerable  which  have  never  been  united  to  form 
bodies,  or  which  if  once  united,  have  been  again  dispersed, 
falling  silently  through  immeasurable  intervals  of  time  and 
space.  As  everywhere  throughout  the  All  the  same  conditions 
are  repeated,  so  must  the  phenomena  repeat. 

TYNDALL — The  Belfast  Address. 

XXIV 

Above  us,  below  us,  beside  us,  therefore,  are  worlds  with 
out  end;  and  this,  when  considered,  must  dissipate  every 
thought  of  a  deflection  of  the  universe  by  the  gods.  The 
worlds  come  and  go,  attracting  new  atoms  out  of  limitless 
space,  or  dispersing  their  own  particles. 

TYNDALL — The  Belfast  Address. 


28 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XXII 

Then  let  each  hour  but  forge  a  golden  link, 
Between  this  life  and  that  beyond  the  brink, 
"  Bound  each  to  each  in  natural  piety," 
Nor  let  the  soul  from  fear  of  death  to  shrink. 


THE   DISBELIEVER:  XXIII 

Cold  and  long  the  night  of  chaos,  ere  the  morn 
Lighted  the  star-mist  at  existence'  dawn, 
Long  was  the  star-mist  driven  by  mere  Force, 
Ere  chaos  ended  and  the  Sun  was  born. 


XXIV 

The  stars  develop  from  the  driven  mist, 
The  blazing  suns  from  nebulae  subsist, 
The  wand' ring  planets  follow  in  their  train, 
They  were  not,  are,  and  shall  they  e'er  persist? 


NOTES 


XXV 

Apparently  the  universally  coexistent  forces  of  attraction 
and  repulsion,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  necessitate  rhythm  in 
all  minor  changes  throughout  the  universe,  also  necessitate 
rhythm  in  the  totality  of  its  changes,  produce  now  an  immeas 
urable  period  during  which  the  attractive  forces  predominating 
cause  universal  concentration,  and  then  an  immeasurable  period 
during  which  the  repulsive  forces  predominate,  cause  universal 
diffusion — alternate  eras  of  Evolution  and  Dissolution. 

SPENCER — First  Principles. 
•  • 

XXVI 

And  thus  there  is  suggested  the  conception  of  a  past  during 
which  there  have  been  successive  Evolutions  analagous  to  that 
which  is  now  going  on,  and  a  future  during  which  other  such 
Evolutions  may  go  on,  ever  the  same  in  principle,  but  never 
the  same  in  concrete  results.  SPENCER — First  Principles. 

XXVII 

Matter,  Motion,  Force,  are  but  symbols  of  the  Unknown 
Reality.  A  Power  of  which  the  nature  remains  forever  incon 
ceivable,  and  to  which  no  limits  in  Time  or  Space  can  be 
imagined,  works  in  us  certain  effects.  These  effects  have  cer 
tain  likeness  of  kind,  the  most  general  of  which  are  classed 
together  under  the  names  of  Matter,  Motion,  and  Force. 

SPENCER — First  Principles. 
30 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XXV 

The  moon,  that  teemed  with  life,  is  now  a  crust, 
And  so  the  stars  will  change,  as  all  things  must, 
Evolve,  decay,  and  crumble  back  to  dust, 
Then  shapeless  into  space  again  be  thrust. 

XXVI 

As  often  to  her  purpose  it  is  meet 
Our  Mother  Nature  shall  the  round  repeat; 
And  of  her  large  and  never  weary  heart, 
This  cycle  grand  is  but  a  single  beat. 

XXVII 

Far  beyond  the  farthermost  reach  of  thought 
The  great  Unknowable  will  e'er  be  sought; 
Eternal  Matter  and  inherent  Force 
Have  all  the  tangled  web  of  Nature  wrought. 


NOTES 


XXVIII 

The  recognition  of  a  persistent  Force,  ever  changing  its 
manifestations,  but  unchanged  in  quantity  throughout  all  past 
time  and  all  future  time,  is  that  which  we  find  alone  makes 
possible  each  concrete  interpretation,  and  at  last  unifies  all  con 
crete  interpretations.  SPENCER — First  Principles. 

XXIX 

What  but  God? 

Inspiring  God!  who  boundless  spirit  all, 
And  unremitting  Energy  pervades, 
Adjusts,  sustains,  and  agitates  th  •  whole. 

THOMPSON — The  Seasons. 

XXX 

We  are  obliged  to  regard  every  phenomenon  as  a  manifesta 
tion  of  some  Power  by  which  we  are  acted  upon;  though 
Omnipresence  is  unthinkable,  yet,  as  experience  discloses  no 
bounds  to  the  diffusion  of  phenomena,  we  are  unable  to  think 
of  limits  to  the  presence  of  this  Power,  while  the  criticisms  of 
Science  teach  us  that  this  Power  is  Incomprehensible. 

SPENCER — First  Principles. 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XXVIII 

As  water  holds  within  its  molecule 
The  pent-up  force  of  steam,  waiting  to  rule 
The  mighty  engines  of  a  busy  world, 
So  Chaos  of  latent  power  was  full. 

THE  DOUBTER:  XXIX 

What  Power  bade  this  dormant  force  awake  ? 
What  Power  a  future  universe  bespake  ? 
What !  Force  existent  in  the  molecule, 
And  Life  itself  of  which  we  all  partake  ? 

THE    DISBELIEVER  :  XXX 

Though  man  has  learned  the  tiny  atom's  weight, 
The  volume  of  the  massive  earth  can  state, 
He  cannot  know  the  Source  of  Things  per  se, 
Nor  can  he  comprehend  the  Ultimate. 


33 


NOTES 


XXXI 

Of  Space  and  Time  we  cannot  assert  limitation  or  absence 
of  limitation.  *  *  *  Space  and  Time  are  wholly  incom 
prehensible.  SPENCER — First  Principles. 


XXXII 

For  a  long  time  after  there  is  consciousness  there  is  no  self- 
consciousness.  The  states  and  changes  of  consciousness  are  not 
known  to  themselves  as  constituting  a  separate  entity.  *  *  * 

SPENCER — Psychology. 


XXXIII 

The  belief  that  a  noise  exists  objectively  as  such,  that  sour 
ness  as  tasted  similarly  inheres  in  vinegar,  and  so  throughout, 
show  us  a  border  region  within  which  subject  and  object  are 
confounded.  SPENCER — Psychology. 


34 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XXXI 

The  birth  of  Time,  the  boundaries  of  Space, 
The  fate  of  man,  his  final  resting-place, — 
The  misty  Whither  and  the  hazy  Whence — 
Are  idle  fancies  of  the  human  race. 


XXXII 

Dame  Nature  paints  in  bright  and  blended  hues, 
With  skillful  brush  the  quick-dissolving  views 
Upon  the  canvas  of  the  sentient  eye, 
And  oft  the  Soul  delights  on  them  to  muse. 

XXXIII 

The  trilling  carols  of  the  happy  birds, 
Within  the  heart  awake  responsive  chords, 
Oft  Memory  plays  upon  the  silver  strings, 
While  Fancy  puts  their  melody  to  words. 


35 


NOTES 


XXXIV 

But  now  Transfigured  Realism  completes  the  differentiation 
of  subject  and  object  by  definitely  separating  that  which  belongs 
to  the  one  from  that  which  belongs  to  the  other.  It  does  not 
with  Idealism  say  that  the  objects  exist  only  as  perceived;  it 
does  not  abolish  the  line  of  demarkation  between  subject  and 
object,  by  object  with  consciousness,  but  it  admits  the  inde 
pendent  existence  of  the  object  as  unperceived. 

SPENCER — Psychology. 

XXXV 

Our  whole  universe,  from  the  sands  of  the  seashore  to  the 
flaming  suns  that  throng  the  milky  way,  is  built  up  of  sights 
and  sounds,  of  tastes  and  odors,  of  pleasures  and  pains,  of  sen- 
sations  of  motion  and  resistance  either  felt  directly  or  interred. 
This  is  no  ghostly  universe,  but  all  intensely  real  as  it  exists  in 
the  intensest  of  realities,  the  human  soul. 

FISKE — From  Nature  to  God. 

XXXVI 

That  ceaseless  flutter  in  which  the  quintessence  of  conscious 
life  consists  is  kept  up  by  the  perpetual  introduction  of  the  rela 
tions  of  likeness  and  unlikeness. 

FISKE — From  Nature  to  God. 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XXXIV 

In  vain  the  atmosphere  with  song  was  thrilled, 
In  vain  the  air  with  fragrance  sweet  was  filled, 
The  grapes  ungarnered  dropped  from  tangled  vines, 
Till  man,  the  crown  of  Nature,  was  revealed. 


XXXV 

The  picture,  perfume,  nectar,  and  the  song, 
Tho'  from  without,  yet  to  the  soul  belong, 
They  enter  through  the  open  doors  of  Sense, 
The  corridors  of  Memory  to  throng. 

XXXVI 

The  first  thing  that  the  helpless  babe  must  learn, 
Is  from  Himself  the  non-self  to  discern; 
Experience  soon  his  restless  hand  will  teach 
The  sparkling  fire  that  tempts  will  surely  burn. 


37 


NOTES 


XXXVII 

Each  one  of  the  infinitesimal  changes,  a  little  act  of  discrim 
ination,  a  recognition  of  a  unit  of  feeling  as  either  like  or  unlike 
some  other  unit  of  feeling.  FISKE — From  Nature  to  God. 

XXXVIII 

So  in  the  depth  of  the  soul's  life  the  arrangement  and  re 
arrangement  of  units  go  on,  while  on  the  surface  the  results 
appear  from  moment  to  moment  in  sensations  keen  or  dull,  in 
perceptions  clear  or  vague,  in  judgments  wise  or  foolish,  in 
memories  pleasant  or  otherwise,  in  sordid  or  lofty  trains  of 
thought,  in  gusts  of  anger  or  thrills  of  love. 

FISKE — From  Nature  to  God. 

XXXIX 

The  "Spirit"  and  "Mind"  of  man  are  but  forces  which 
are  inseparably  connected  with  the  material  substance  of  our 
bodies.  Just  as  the  motive  force  of  our  flesh  is  involved  in  the 
muscular  form-element,  so  is  the  thinking  force  of  our  spirit 
involved  in  the  form-element  of  the  brain.  Our  spiritual  forces 
are  as  much  functions  of  this  part  of  the  body  as  every  force  is 
a  function  of  a  material  body. 

HAECKEL — Evolution  of  Man. 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XXXVII 

The  senses  teach  the  e'er  receptive  brain 
Through  many  months  their  lessons  to  explain, 
Until  grown  wiser  as  the  years  roll  by, 
It  knows  the  bird  whene'er  it  hears  the  strain. 


XXXVIII 

It  knows  the  sweet  refrain  so  well,  that  soon 
From  Memory  it  makes  an  echoed  tune, 
The  sleeping  atoms  of  the  brain  awake, 
Its  gloomy  night  gives  place  to  splendent  noon. 

XXXIX 

How  budding  sense  evolves  a  flow'ring  Soul, 
How  that  the  Mind  is  born,  which  holds  control 
So  long  man  walks  the  narrow  span  of  life, 
If  it  were  ever  writ,  then  man  has  lost  the  scroll. 


39 


NOTES 


XL 

It  is  a  corrupting  doctrine  to  open  a  brain,  and  to  tell  us 
that  devotion  is  a  definite  molecular  change  in  this  and  that 
convolution  of  gray  pulp,  and  that,  if  man  is  the  first  of  living 
animals,  he  passes  away  after  a  short  space  like  the  beasts  that 
perish.  FREDERICK  HARRISON — The  Soul  and  Future  Life. 

XLI 

During  sleep  it  is  incontestable,  on  the  premises  that  primi 
tive  man  has  at  his  disposal,  that  the  spirit  sometimes  makes 
long  journeys,  for  the  sleeper  often  recollects  wandering,  hunt 
ing,  or  making  war  in  distant  countries  at  a  time  when  his 
companions  are  perfectly  aware  that  his  body  has  lain  motion 
less.  GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 

XLII 

Other  analogies  are  borrowed  from  the  physical  fact  of  the 
shadow  cast  by  the  sun;  one  seems  to  see  the  spirit  walking 
side  by  side  with  the  body,  and  even  changing  its  place  while 
the  body  is  motionless. 

GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 


40 


THE   APISTOPH1LON 


THE    DEVOTEE  :  XL 

Say  not  that  Love  that  sings  its  sweet  refrain 
Is  but  atomic  changes  in  the  brain, 
That  thinking  man  is  but  a  wiser  brute, 
Dare  not  thus-wise  God's  temple  to  profane. 


THE    DISBELIEVER  :  XLI 

Man  often  in  the  fancy  of  his  dreams 

Through  phantom  forests  sailed  the  shadow  streams, 

Whereas  his  body  never  left  its  couch, 

It  needs  must  be  himself  a  double  seems. 


XLII 

He  sees  his  face  as  mirrored  in  the  fount, 
He  hears  his  voice  reechoed  by  the  mount, 
The  shadow  of  his  body  never  fails, 
Nor  shall  himself  a  shadow  spirit  want. 


NOTES 


XLIII 

Does  not  one  fairly  hear  the  departure  of  the  breath  ani 
mating  a  living 'body,  in  what  one  calls  the  last  gasp?  *  *  * 
A  sleeping  body  awakes,  it  seems  to  follow  that  a  dead  body 
will  awake;  that  is  the  line  of  reasoning. 

GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 

XLIV 

For  primate  man,  to  whom  all  these  distinctions,  all  the 
gradations  are  impossible,  there  is  but  one  thing  evident,  and 
that  is  the  whole  of  nature  lives;  and  he  naturally  conceives 
their  life  on  the  model  of  his  own,  as  accompanied  by  self- 
consciousness,  by  an  intelligence  the  more  astonishing  that  it  is 
mysterious.  GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 

XLV 

Poetry  is  often  philosophy  in  its  most  penetrating  form. 
Who  has  not  asked  himself  sometimes  if  a  puissant  and  hidden 
spring  of  life  does  not  circulate  unknown  to  us  in  the  high 
mountain,  in  the  still  trees,  in  the  restless  ocean,  and  if  mute 
nature  does  not  live  in  one  long  course  of  meditation  upon 
themes  unknown  to  us? 

GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XLIII 

And  when  at  last  Sleep's  elder  brother,  Death, 
Lulls  him  to  rest,  the  last  expiring  breath 
Shall  waft  that  spirit  to  the  farther  land 
To  sport  again  upon  a  spectral  heath. 

XLIV 

The  Perfume  shows  a  spirit  is  innate 
Within  the  flower,  the  willing  air  to  sate, 
The  rustling  leaves  are  whispers  of  a  Soul, 
To  primal  man  all  things  are  animate. 

XLV 

The  gentle  winds  that  fan  the  throbbing  brows 
A  kindly  spirit  only  could  espouse, 
The  angry  storms  that  lash  the  foaming  main 
A  hostile  demon  only  could  arouse. 


43 


NOTES 


XLVI 

Nature  is  full  of  surprises  and  terrors.  *  *  *  In  effect 
earth  and  sky  incessantly  furnish  mankind  with  new  impressions 
capable  of  stimulating  the  most  torpid  imagination,  and  of 
appealing  to  the  whole  round  of  human  and  social  sensibilities: 
fear,  respect,  gratitude. 

GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 

XLVII 

Primus   in  urbe  Decs  fecit  timor.       The   first   thing  that 
introduced  a  God  into  the  world  was  fear.          PETRONIUS. 
Fear  always  springs  from  ignorance.  EMERSON. 

XLVIII 

The  true  prayer  of  the  dog  consists  in  licking  the  hand 
which  wounds  him.  *  *  *  It  is  almost  an  example  of 
religious  submission;  the  sentiment  which  is  observable  in 
embryo  in  the  dog  is  the  same  as  that  which  in  its  complete 
development  appears  in  the  Psalms  and  the  book  of  Job. 

GUYAU — Non- Religion  of  the  Future. 


44 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XLVI 

The  usual  rhythm  of  the  universe 
Disturbs  him  not,  but  when  unwonted  Force, 
Unusual  sounds  and  strange  and  frightful  sights, 
Appall  his  sense,  he  fears  a  demon's  curse. 

XLVI  I 

Then  quickly  gasps  the  short  and  panting  breath, 
The  quiv'ring  heart  quails  at  the  thought  of  death, 
The  cringing  soul  bows  to  an  Unknown  Dread, 
For  frantic  fear  is  father  of  man's  faith. 


XLVI  1 1 

The  cringing  cur  that  crouches  'neath  the  blow, 
Prays  that  his  master  mercy  will  bestow, 
Yet  licks  the  hand  that  wields  the  cruel  lash, 
For  man  is  all  the  god  a  dog  can  know. 


45 


NOTES 


XLIX 

If  animals  tremble  before  the  thunder,  it  is  unlikely  that 
primitive  man  should  see  nothing  in  it  abnormal  and  extraor 
dinary.  Similarly  the  hurricane,  which  seems  like  an  enor 
mous  respiration,  as  of  a  universe  out  of  breath.  Similarly 
with  the  tempest:  one  knows  the  Basque  proverb,  "If  you 
want  to  learn  to  pray,  go  to  sea." 

GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 


The  living  king  himself  is  great,  how  much  greater  must  be 
the  ancestor  whom  even  the  king  fears  and  worships,  and  how 
infinitely  greater  shall  be  the  ancestor's  ancestor,  whom  the 
ancestor  himself  revered  and  worshiped? 

GRANT  ALLEN — Evolution  of  the  Idea  of  God. 

LI 

Throughout  the  earlier  and  ruder  phases  of  human  evolu 
tion  this  primitive  conception  of  ancestors  or  dead  relatives,  as 
the  chief  known  objects  of  worship,  survives  undiluted:  and 
ancestor-worship  remains  to  this  day  the  principal  religion  of 
the  Chinese  and  of  several  other  peoples. 

GRANT  ALLEN — Evolution  of  the  Idea  of  God. 


46 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XLIX 

When  Nature  thunders  in  her  darker  moods, 
When  light'nings  flash  and  storm  winds  bend  the  woods, 
When  quakes  the  trembling  Earth  with  craven  fear, 
Then  calls  the  awe-struck  man  upon  his  gods. 


The  chief  that  here  ruled  o'er  a  petty  tribe, 
Their  phantom  laws  in  ghost-land  will  prescribe, 
As  sinks  the  sun  the  shadow  longer  grows, 
So  distant  Time  doth  greater  power  ascribe. 

LI 

And  if  on  earth  one  ruled  with  heavy  rod, 
Till  all  his  tribesmen  trembled  at  his  nod, 
He  burst  the  bars  at  death  to  rule  the  air, 
The  erstwhile  man  becomes  a  demi-god. 


47 


NOTES 


LII 

This  ethical  element,  like  all  other  elements  in  the  religion, 
is  propitiatory  in  origin  and  nature.  It  begins  with  fulfillment 
of  the  wishes  or  commands  of  the  dead  parent,  or  departed 
chief,  or  traditional  God.  There  is  at  first  included  in  the 
ethical  element  no  other  duty  than  that  of  obedience. 

SPENCER. 

LIII 

He  maketh  a  God  and  worships  it.  ISAIAH  44:  15. 

An  honest  God  is  the  noblest  work  of  man. 

ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL. 

LIV 

None  but  God  can  satisfy  the  longings  of  an  immortal  soul; 
that  as  his  heart  was  made  for  Him  so  He  only  can  fill  it. 
TRENCH — On  the  Prodigal  Son. 


48 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


LII 

As  they  had  groveled  to  him  in  the  dust 
When  but  a  mortal,  now  a  dreadful  Must, 
The  fear-born  Conscience  of  a  craven  heart, 
Compels  their  souls  to  pander  to  his  lust. 

LIII 

From  Ghost  to  God  is  but  a  narrow  span, 
In  figment  of  the  fancy  both  began, 
As  man  grows  wiser,  nobler  is  his  God, 
God's  but  "  the  shade  cast  by  the  Soul  of  man.' 

THE  DEVOTEE:  LIV 

As  well  to  quench  the  thirst  at  painted  pool, 
Or  try  the  hot  and  sweaty  brow  to  cool 
In  mimic  shadow  of  a  pictured  wood, 
As  satisfy  with  such  a  God  the  soul. 


49 


NOTES 


LV 

The  religion  of  the  lower  races  is  almost  as  a  rule  one  of 
terror  and  of  dread.  Their  deities  are  jealous  and  revengeful, 
cruel,  merciless  and  selfish,  hateful  and  childish.  They  require 
to  be  propitiated  by  feasts  and  offerings,  often  even  by  human 
sacrifices.  LUBBOCK — The  Pleasures  of  Life. 

LVI 

The  visiting  on  Adam's  descendants  through  hundreds  of 
generations,  dreadful  penalties  for  a  small  transgression  which 
they  did  not  commit,  the  damning  of  all  men  who  do  not  avail 
themselves  of  an  alleged  mode  of  obtaining  forgiveness,  which 
most  men  have  never  heard  of;  and  the  effecting  a  reconcilia 
tion  by  sacrificing  a  son  who  was  perfectly  innocent,  to  satisfy 
the  assumed  necessity  for  a  propitiatory  victim,  are  modes  of 
action  which,  ascribed  to  a  human  ruler,  would  call  forth  ex 
pressions  of  abhorrence.  SPENCER — Sociology. 

LVII 

This  conflict  with  what  seems  an  evil  environment  is, 
therefore,  a  necessary  condition  of  such  evolution.  It  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that,  without  this  condition,  except  for  the 
necessity  for  struggle,  man  could  never  have  thus  emerged, 
would  never  have  risen  above  the  lowest  stage. 

LE  CONTE — Evolution  and  the  Problem  of  Evil. 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


THE    DISBELIEVER  :  LV 

How  black  can  be  the  Curse  of  Cult  that  blights! 
The  savage  pagans  practice  deadly  rites 
To  soothe  the  anger  of  their  Devil-God, 
A  God  that  in  the  smell  of  blood  delights. 

LVI 

The  Christian  stole  the  Devil-God  away, 

And  bids  mankind  to  love  and  to  obey 

A  monster  that  did  glut  His  cruel  thirst 

With  His  Son's  blood,  whom  He  had  made  men  slay ! 

LVI  I 

The  car  of  Progress  bears  a  heavy  load 
From  Cult  to  Culture  o'er  a  rocky  road, 
Hard  driven  by  the  hand  of  heartless  fate 
We,  restive  cattle,  kick  against  the  goad. 


NOTES 

LVIII 

And  Moses  spake  unto  the  people  saying,  Arm  ye  men 
from  among  you  for  the  war  that  they  may  go  against  Midian 
to  execute  the  Lord's  vengeance  on  Midian.  *  *  *  And 
they  warred  against  Midian,  as  the  Lord  commanded  Moses; 
and  they  slew  every  male.  *  *  *  And  the  children  of 
Israel  took  captive  the  women  of  Midian  and  their  little  ones. 

*  *     *     Now,  therefore,  kill  every  male  among  the  little 
ones,  and  kill  every  woman  that  has  known  man  by  lying  with 
him.      But  all  the  women  children  that  have  not  known  man 
by  lying  with  him  keep  alive  for  yourselves. 

NUMBERS  31:  3,  7,  9,  17,  1 8. 

LIX 

And  the  innumerable  passages  in  which  Jehovah  is  said  to 
be  jealous  of  other  gods,  to  be  angry,  to  be  appeased,  and  to 
repent;  in  which  he  is  represented  as  casting  off  Saul  because 
the  King  does  not  quite  literally  execute  a  command  of  ruthless 
severity, — can  any  one  deny  that  the  old  Israelites  conceived 
Jehovah  not  only  in  the  image  of  man,  but  in  that  of  a  change 
able,  irritable,  and  occasionally  violent  man? 

HUXLEY — Evolution  of  Theology. 

LX 

There  is  not  a  criminal  in  an  European  jail,  there  is  not  a 
cannibal  in  the  South  Sea  islands,  whose  indignation  would  not 
rise  and  overboil  at  the  recital  of  that  which  has  been  done. 

*  *     *     The   atrocious   massacre   of  the  Bulgarians   by  the 
Turks.      *     *     *     Which  has  left  behind  the  fierce  passions 
that  produced  it,  and  which  may  spring  up  in  another  murder 
ous  harvest  from   the  soil   reeked  with  blood,  and  in  the  air 
tainted  with  every  imaginable  deed  of  crime  and  shame. 

GLADSTONE — The  Bulgarian  Massacre. 
52 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


LVIII 

The  captive  maids  of  Midian  desolate, 
Made  orphans  by  a  sword  insatiate, 
Bewail  the  ruthless  slaughter  of  their  homes, 
Jehovah's  horrid  hecatomb  of  hate. 


LIX 

Where'er  the  bloody  tribes  of  Israel  rove, 
The  same  dark  thread  of  Death  is  interwove, 
Jehovah  is  an  echo  of  their  soul, 
Jehovah  is  no  more  the  God  than  Jove. 

LX 

The  blood-stained  Turk  now  wields  the  reeking  blade, 
For  rape  and  rapine  makes  his  robber  raid  ; 
Yet  bows  his  head  each  day  in  frequent  prayers, 
And  plies  in  name  of  God  the  Devil's  trade. 


53 


NOTES 


LXI 

And  when  they  came  to  the  threshing-floor  of  Nacon, 
Uzzah  put  forth  his  hand  to  the  ark  of  God  and  took  hold  of  it, 
for  the  oxen  stumbled.  And  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was  kin 
dled  against  Uzzah;  and  God  smote  him  there  for  his  error 
and  there  he  died  by  the  ark  of  God.  II  SAMUEL  6:6. 

LXII 

And  again  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against  Israel 
and  he  moved  David  against  them  to  say,  Go,  number  Israel 
and  Judah.  *  *  *  And  David's  heart  smote  him  after  he 
had  numbered  the  people.  -  *  *  *  Gad  came  to  David 
and  told  him,  Shall  seven  years  of  famine  come  unto  thee  or 
wilt  thou  flee  three  months  before  thine  enemies  or  that  there 
be  three  days'  pestilence  in  the  land.  *  *  *  And  David 
said  unto  Gad,  I  am  in  a  great  strait;  let  us  fall  now  into  the 
hand  of  the  Lord.  *  *  *  So  the  Lord  sent  a  pestilence 
upon  Israel.  II  SAMUEL  24:1,  10,  13,  14,  15. 

LXIII 

And  it  repented  the  Lord  that  He  had  made  man  on  the 
earth,  and  it  grieved  Him  in  His  heart.  And  the  Lord  said, 
I  will  destroy  man  whom  I  have  created  from  the  face  of  the 
earth,  both  man  and  beast  and  the  creeping  thing  and  the  fowls 
of  the  air;  for  it  repenteth  me  that  I  have  made  them. 

GENESIS  6:6,  7. 

54 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


LXI 

When  Uzzah  tried  the  shaking  ark  to  save, 
Lest  it  be  dashed  against  the  rolling  nave, 
The  anger  of  Jehovah  was  inflamed, 
And  Uzzah  got  for  pay  an  early  grave. 

LXI  I 

King  David,  moved  by  fierce  Jehovah's  ire, 
The  number  of  his  people  to  inquire, 
Chose  by  the  self-same  God  to  suffer  plague, 
Till  even  He  did  of  the  slaughter  tire. 

LXIII 

That  He  had  made  the  world  God  did  repent, 
And  so  devised  as  proper  punishment 
To  drown  His  creatures  in  a  raging  flood. 
A  dying  world  could  not  His  heart  relent. 


55 


NOTES 


LXIV 

For  I  the  Lord  thy  God  am  a  jealous  God,  visiting  the 
iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children  unto  the  third  and 
fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate  me.  EXODUS  zo:  5. 

For  the  Lord  whose  name  is  Jealous  is  a  jealous  God. 

EXODUS  24:  13. 

LXV 

No  one  is  so  much  alone  in  the  universe  as  a  denier  of 
God.  With  an  orphaned  heart,  which  has  lost  the  greatest 
of  fathers,  he  stands  mourning  by  the  immeasurable  corpse  of 
nature,  no  longer  moved  or  sustained  by  the  Spirit  of  the  uni 
verse,  but  groaning  in  its  grave;  and  he  mourns,  until  he  him 
self  crumbles  away  from  the  dead  body. 

RICHTER — Flower,  Fruit  and  Thorn. 

LXVI 

We  are  wont  to  look  upon  atheism  with  unspeakable  horror 
and  loathing.  Our  moral  sense  revolts  against  it  no  less  than 
our  intelligence;  and  this  is  because  on  its  practical  side  atheism 
would  remove  Humanity  from  its  peculiar  position  in  the 
world,  and  make  it  cast  its  lot  with  the  grass  that  withers  and 
the  beasts  that  perish.  FISKE — Destiny  of  Man. 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


LXIV 

And  shall  the  world  obey  the  beck  and  nod 
Of  such  a  cruel,  mean,  and  jealous  God, 
Worthy  the  scorn  of  every  honest  man  ? 
As  soon  bend  knee  before  a  senseless  clod ! 


THE  DEVOTEE:  LXV 

O,  ruthless  cruelty  of  Unbelief, 

That  creeps  up  like  a  velvet-footed  thief, 

To  steal  away  the  jewel  of  man's  faith, 

And  leaves  a  bankrupt  heart  to  mourn  its  grief. 


LXVI 

From  what  a  height  the  noble  spirit  fell 
To  preach  the  pratings  of  the  Infidel  ! 
To  flout  such  mouthings  in  the  face  of  God 
Is  monstrous  blasphemy  inspired  of  Hell. 


57 


NOTES 


LXVII 

It  were  better  to  have  no  opinion  of  God  at  all  than  such 
an  opinion  as  is  unworthy  of  Him,  for  the  one  is  unbelief,  and 
the  other  is  contumely,  and  certainly  superstition  is  the  reproach 
of  the  Deity.  BACON — Essays  on  Superstition. 


LXVIII 

Note  also  that  the  loss  of  beloved  beings,  misfortunes  of 
every  sort,  and  irreparable  infirmities  all  provoke  an  expansion 
of  the  heart  toward  God. 

GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 


LXIX 

It  is  not  without  reason  that  faith  has  been  compared  to  an 
anchor  that  has  caught  on  the  bottom  and  checked  the  vessel  in 
its  course,  while  the  open  and  free  ocean  stretches  beyond  as 
far  as  the  eye  can  reach. 

GUYAU — Non- Religion  of  the  Future. 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


THE  DISBELIEVER:  LXVII 

But  rather  he  blasphemes  that  dares  impute 

Unto  his  God  so  low  an  attribute. 

Ah,  sad  it  is  that  even  to  this  day 

The  tree  of  Faith  should  bear  such  bitter  fruit ! 


THE  DEVOTEE:  LXVIII 

Faith  is  the  anchor  of  the  human  ship, 
When  sorrow's  winds  the  groaning  yard  arms  strip, 
Else  it  were  dashed  on  rocks  of  dark  Despair. 
Then  cling  to  Faith,  nor  let  the  cable  slip. 


THE  DISBELIEVER:  LXIX 

But  Faith  would  check  the  vessel's  onward  way, 
Forever  anchored  in  the  oozing  clay. 
When  Reason  fires  the  engine  of  the  Soul 
It  stems  the  storm  and  cuts  the  foaming  spray. 


59 


NOTES 


LXX 

"For  the  young  birds  pipe  as  the  old  ones  sing." 

HEINE. 


LXXI 

Search  for  the  truth  is  the  noblest  occupation  of  man  ;  its 
publication  a  duty.  MADAME  DE  STAEL. 


LXXII 

All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profit 
able  for  doctrines,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in 
righteousness.  II  TIMOTHY,  3:16. 

Thy  word  is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet  and  a  light  unto  my 
path.  The  entrance  of  thy  words  giveth  light;  it  giveth 
understanding  unto  the  simple.  PSALM  119:  107,  130. 


60 


THE    APISTOPHILON 


THE    DOUBTER  :  LXX 

The  children  to  their  fathers'  faith  do  cling  ! 
And  ne'er  without  due  cause  as  worthless  fling 
Aside  the  teachings  of  the  hallowed  past. 
The  young  birds  pipe  the  note  the  old  ones  sing. 

THE    DISBELIEVER  I  LXXI 

Not  he  that  blindly  trusts  the  worn-out  creeds, 
But  he  that  follows  whither  Reason  leads 
In  search  of  Truth,  has  pure  religion  got. 
The  one  gleans  wheat — the  other  garners  weeds. 

THE  DEVOTEE:  LXXII 

God  did  not  set  the  human  race  adrift 
Without  a  chart;  the  Bible  was  His  gift 
To  guide  the  goodly  ship  mid  shoals  and  reefs, 
Or  else  it  on  the  sunken  rocks  would  rift. 


61 


NOTES 

LXXIII 

Search  the  Scriptures;  for  in  them  ye  think  ye  have  eternal 
life.  JOHN  5:  39. 

But  the  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  spirit  of 
God;  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him;  neither  can  he  know 
them,  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned. 

I  COR.  2:  14. 

LXXIV 

Thus  at  last  out  of  the  conception  of  our  Bible  as  a  collec 
tion  of  oracles — a  mass  of  entangling  utterances  fruitful  in 
wrangling  interpretations,  which  has  given  to  the  world  long 
and  weary  ages  of  "hatred,  malice,  and  all  uncharitableness" — 
has  been  gradually  developed  through  the  centuries,  by  the 
labors,  sacrifices,  and  even  the  martyrdom  of  a  long  succession 
of  men  of  God,  the  conception  of  it  as  a  sacred  literature,  *  *  * 
(a  revelation  not  of  the  fall  of  man,  but  of  the  ascent  of  man), 
an  exposition,  not  of  temporary  dogmas  and  observances,  but  of 
the  Eternal  Law  of  Righteousness — the  one  upward  path  for 
individuals  and  for  nations. 

WHITE — Warfare  of  Science  and  Theology. 

LXXV 

The  Bible  is  an  unique  book,  corresponding  to  a   peculiar 
state  of  mind,   and  it  can  no  more  be  made  over  or  corrected 
than  a  work  of  Phidias  or  Praxiteles.      In  spite  of  its  moral 
lapses  and  its  frequent  disaccord   with  the   conscience  of  our 
epoch,  it  is  a  necessary  complement  of  Christianity;  it   mani 
fests  the  spirit  of  Christian  Society,  it  represents  the  tradition  of 
it,  and  attaches  the  beliefs  of  the  present  to  those  of  the  past. 
GUYAU — Non- Religion  of  the  Future. 
62 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


LXXIII 

The  key  to  Life  is  in  God's  written  word, 
The  Doom  of  Death  is  in  the  risen  Lord, 
None  but  the  Eye  of  Faith  can  see  the  Truth, 
None  but  the  Ear  of  Faith  can  hear  its  chord. 


THE  DOUBTER:  LXXIV 

In  mystic  garb  the  Bible  holds  the  Truth, 
Tho'  its  bald  facts  may  seem  at  times  uncouth; 
Its  Oriental  cast  of  thought  and  words 
Were  suited  to  the  World's  unruly  youth. 


THE  DISBELIEVER:  LXXV 

The  Bible  has  indeed  a  well-stocked  store 
Of  marvels,  myths,  and  wondrous  legend  lore; 
It  does  contain  some  gems  of  priceless  worth 
Gleaned  from  antiquity,  but  little  more. 


NOTES 


LXXVI 

Jesus  Christ,  therefore,  is  Lord  to  Christians  in  the  same 
sense  that  Jehovah  was  Lord  to  the  Hebrews.  The  usage  re 
ferred  to  is  peculiar,  no  man — not  even  Moses  or  Abraham  or 
David,  nor  any  of  the  prophets  or  apostles — is  ever  thus  pre 
vailingly  addressed  or  invoked  as  Lord.  We  have  but  one 
Lord,  and  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord. 

HODGE — Systematic  Theology. 

LXXVII 

Here  was  the  greatest  soul  of  all  the  sons  of  men,  one 
before  whom  the  majestic  mind  of  Grecian  sages  and  of 
Hebrew  seers  must  veil  its  face.  His  perfect  obedience  made 
Him  free.  So  complete  was  it  but  a  single  will  dwelt  in  Him 
and  God,  and  He  could  say,  I  and  my  Father  are  one. 

THEODORE  PARKER — Mistakes  about  Jesus. 

LXXVIII 

Christianity  is  the  most  anthropomorphic  belief  in  existence, 
for  it  is  the  one  of  all  others  which,  after  having  conceived  the 
most  elevated  idea  of  God,  abases  it  without  degrading  it  to 
the  most  human  of  human  conditions.  By  a  much  more  refined, 
much  more  profound  paganism  than  the  paganism  of  antiquity, 
the  Christian  religion  has  succeeded  in  making  God  the  object 
of  ardent  love,  without  ceasing  to  make  Him  an  object  of 
respect.  GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 

64 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


THE  DEVOTEE:  LXXVI 

For  us  is  Christ  the  Son  of  God  revealed 
From  Justice's  sword,  to  be  a  perfect  shield, 
The  Man  of  God  that  knows  our  load  of  grief, 
For  with  His  stripes  the  sins  of  men  are  healed. 

THE  DOUBTER:  LXXVII 

For  us  Christ  is  the  God  in  man  revealed, 
Whose  Divinity  long  had  been  concealed, 
Until  the  Master  brought  it  to  the  Light, 
The  human  race  in  bonds  of  love  to  weld. 

THE  DISBELIEVER:  LXXVIII 

For  us  Christ  Jesus  is  the  Nazarene, 
Though  lowly  born  yet  of  a  manly  mien, 
Who  preached  against  the  Jewish  Pharisees, 
And  sowed  the  seeds  whose  harvest  we  yet  glean. 


NOTES 


LXXIX 

St.  Augustine,  after  thirty  years  of  age,  and  other  fathers,  bear 
testimony  to  a  sudden  enduring  and  extraordinary  change  in 
themselves,  called  conversion.  Now  this  experience  has  been 
repeated  and  testified  to  by  countless  millions  of  civilized  men 
and  women  in  all  nations  and  all  degrees  of  culture. 

ROMANES — Thoughts  on  Religion. 

LXXX 

I  am  a  Jew,  *  *  *  and  I  persecuted  this  Way  unto  death, 
binding  and  delivering  into  prisons  both  men  and  women. 

*  *    *    And  it  came  to  pass  that  as  I  made  my  journey,  and 
drew  nigh  unto  Damascus,  about  noon,   suddenly  there  shone 
from   Heaven  a   great  light  round  about  me.     And  I  fell  unto 
the  ground  and  heard  a  voice  saying  unto  me,  Saul,  Saul,  why 
persecutest  thou  me.   *  *  *  And  I  said,  What  shall  I  do,  Lord? 

ACTS  22:  4,  6,  10. 

LXXXI 

Suggestion  has  a  vast  field  for  its  effects;  it  can  be  said  to 
be  as  extensive  as  the  nervous  system  in  general,  inasmuch  as 
all  forms  of  nervous  activity  can  be  induced  by  suggestion. 

*  *  *  Still  more   important  and  varied  are  the  effects  of  sug 
gestion  within  the  higher  psychical  life,  where  thoughts,  ideas, 
moods,  desires,  impulses,  and  actions  can  all  be  ruled  by  it, 

*  *  *  so  that  bad  habits  can  be  suppressed  and  depraved  char 
acter  can  be  improved  and  changed. 

BJORNSTROM — Hypnotism. 
66 


THE    APISTOPHILON 


THE  DEVOTEE:  LXXIX 

The  proof  that  Christianity  can  save 
From  Sin  on  earth  and  Hell  beyond  the  grave 
Lies  in  this  fact:  That  by  the  Grace  of  God, 
To  honesty  it  can  convert  a  knave. 


LXXX 

The  "  old  man  "  is  a  persecuting  Saul, 
The  "  new  man  "  is  a  righteous  acting  Paul, 
For  Satan  rules  no  more  that  happy  heart 
That  Faith  has  taught  upon  its  God  to  call. 

THE    DISBELIEVER.  LXXXI 

Conversion  is  suggestion  just  disguised, 
The  "  new  man  "  is  the  "  old  man  "  hypnotized. 
Religion  is  the  wand  that  works  the  spell! 
And  through  belief  the  Devil 's  exorcised! 


67 


NOTES 


LXXXII 

Has  every  suffering,  searching  soul  which  ever  gazed  up  into 
the  darkness  of  the  unknown,  in  hope  of  catching  even  a 
glimpse  of  a  divine  eye  beholding  all  and  ordering  all  and  pity 
ing  all,  gazed  up  in  vain  ?  *  *  *  Oh,  my  friends,  those  who 
believe  or  fancy  they  believe  such  things  must  be  able  to  do  so 
only  through  some  peculiar  confirmation  of  brain  or  heart. 
KINGSLEY — Westminster  Sermons. 

LXXXIII 

It  is  a  doctrine  dear  to  the  heart  of  mankind,  that  through 
prayer  we  can  hold  communion  with  the  source  of  all,  receive 
revelations  from  the  very  God,  and  be  inspired  by  Him.  New 
truth,  new  revelation,  flows  into  us.  We  make  His  thought 
our  thought.  THEODORE  PARKER — Sermons. 

LXXXIV 

The  belief  in  this  intercourse  with  our  Father  rises  spontane 
ous  in  the  simple  heart  of  Childhood,  and,  as  instinctive  trust, 
swells  outward  in  the  new-born  soul.  In  primitive  nations  of 
the  world's  history  the  same  intuitive  trust  appears.  In  all 
forms  of  religion  you  find  this.  It  meets  you  with  the  savage 
and  civilized,  in  all  states  of  progress;  in  all  degrees  of  growth 
in  religion — that  of  fear,  of  hope,  and  of  love. 

THEODORE  PARKER — Sermons. 


68 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


THE  DEVOTEE:  LXXXII 

Prayer  is  the  pleading  of  the  weary  soul 
The  load  of  Sin  from  off  the  heart  to  roll; 
Prayer  is  the  plea  to  kindly  Providence 
To  give,  to  guide,  to  guard,  and  to  control. 


THE  DOUBTER:  LXXXIII 

The  windows  of  the  soul  are  open  thrown 

By  prayer,  through  which  are  cooling  breezes  blown 

To  bathe  the  brows  of  heavy-burdened  man, 

To  bear  the  blessings  wafted  from  God's  throne. 

LXXXIV 

A  grain  of  incense  burns  in  ev'ry  heart, 
And  when  its  perfume  forms  no  more  a  part 
Of  life  on  earth,  it  swiftly  mounts  to  Heaven, 
As  eager  arrows  to  the  target  dart. 


69 


NOTES 


LXXXV 

Prayer  may  be  an  almost  mechanical  accomplishment  of  the 
rite,  the  babbling  of  vain  words,  and  as  such  it  is  despicable, 
even  from  the  point  of  religion.  It  may  be  an  egoistic  demand, 
and  as  such  is  simply  mean. 

GUYAU — Non- Religion  of  the  Future. 

LXXXVI 

The  mediaeval  Lord,  who,  after  having  killed  the  next  of 
kin,  rears  a  chapel  to  some  saint,  the  hermit  who  lacerates  his 
chest  in  order  to  avoid  the  more  redoubtable  pangs  of  hell, 
reason  from  precisely  the  same  fashion  as  my  dog,  they  are 
endeavoring  to  conciliate  their  judge,  and  to  be  quite  frank,  to 
corrupt  him,  for  superstition  rests  in  a  great  measure  upon  the 
belief  that  it  is  possible  to  corrupt  God. 

GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 

LXXXVII 

It  is  always  dangerous  to  believe  that  one  possesses  a  power 
that  one  has  not,  for  it  hinders  in  some  degree  from  knowing 
and  exercising  those  one  has. 

GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 


70 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


THE    DISBELIEVER  I  LXXXV 

Both  time  and  force  are  lost  in  useless  prayer 
As  blows  that  beat  upon  the  empty  air, 
A  senseless  babble  or  a  heartless  rite 
Cannot  for  work  or  weal  the  soul  prepare. 


LXXXVI 

And  why  should  man  in  praying  waste  his  days 
Or  spend  his  breath  in  singing  fulsome  praise 
Must  God  be  flattered  into  doing  right  ? 
He  worships  best  that  duty  most  obeys. 

LXXXVI  I 

To  hold  that  Nature's  fixed  and  stable  power 

Is  changed  thro'  prayer  is  wrong.    When  comes  the  hour 

Of  Trial,  man  will  be  left  in  impotence 

And  new-born  Grief  shall  all  his  strength  devour. 


NOTES 


LXXXVIII 
Self-conquest  is  the  greatest  of  victories.  PLATO. 

LXXXIX 

They  that  deny  a  God  destroy  man's  nobility,  for  cer 
tainly  man  is  of  kin  to  the  beasts  by  his  body;  and  if  he  be  not 
of  kin  to  God  by  his  spirit,  he  is  a  base  and  ignoble  creature. 

BACON — Essays  on  Atheism. 

XC 

Cares  not  a  pin  what  they  said  or  may  say.  POPE. 


72 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


THE  DOUBTER:  LXXXVIII 

That  heart  becomes  an  easy  prey  to  Sin 

Whose  morals  from  mere  priest-born  dogmas  spring, 

When  fails  his  creed,  then  falls  integrity; 

Better  a  Soul  hard  trained  by  discipline. 


THE  DEVOTEE:  LXXXIX 

Such  words  as  these  deserve  but  ridicule: 
"  There  is  no  God  " — the  motto  of  the  fool. 
The  boy  that  cons  his  lessons  day  by  day 
Must  know  a  Master  keeps  earth's  greater  school. 

THE  BOY:  XC 

Give  me  but  time  to  spin  my  whirling  top, 
Give  me  a  place  to  run,  to  jump,  to  hop. 
What  do  I  care  for  all  your  useless  words  ? 
Give  me  but  room  to  play  and  never  stop! 


73 


NOTES 


XCI 


The  keynote  of  the  universe  is  joy,  and  every  theory  of 
destiny  must  harmonize  with  it.  *  *  *  We  base  our 
proof,  however,  not  on  mere  analogy,  but  on  the  simple 
ground  that  the  nature  of  the  soul  demands  a  proper  and 
answering  sphere,  as  wings  demand  air  and  fish  water. 

MUNGER — The  Freedom  of  Faith. 


XCII 

As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water-brook,  so  panteth  my 
soul  after  thee,  oh  God.  PSALMS  42:1. 

Thou  art  what  I  want; 
I  am  athirst  for  God,  the  living  God. 

JEAN  INGELOW. 

XCIII 

What  is  there  in  man  so  worthy  of  honor  and  reverence  as 
this:  that  he  is  capable  of  contemplating  something  higher  than 
his  own  reason,  more  sublime  than  the  whole  universe;  that 
spirit  which  alone  is  self-subsistent,  from  which  all  truth  pro 
ceeds,  without  which  there  is  no  truth.  JACOBI. 


74 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


THE  DEVOTEE:  XCI 

Life  is  a  dirge  that  drones  its  doleful  feet 
In  time  to  heart  that  throbs  its  sorry  beat, 
Life  is  a  song  with  scarce  a  note  of  cheer, 
Be  there  no  Heaven  to  make  this  life  complete. 

XCII 

Blooms  all  in  vain  for  me  the  budding  morn, 
The  Rose  of  Life  bears  but  the  prickly  thorn, 
My  orphaned  Spirit  moans  its  life  away 
If  from  my  heart  the  Love  of  God  is  torn. 

XCIII 

For  me  the  full  blown  day  no  fragrance  sheds, 
For  me  the  sun  a  sombre  pall  o'erspreads, 
For  me  the  brightest  day  is  sad  and  drear, 
If  God  the  Father  be  not  overhead. 


75 


NOTES 


XCIV 

Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  farthing,  and  one  of  them 
shall  not  fall  on  the  ground  without  your  Father? 

MARK  10:  29. 

Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field,  how  they  grow;  they  toil 
not,  neither  do  they  spin;  and  yet  I  say  unto  you,  that  even 
Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these. 
Wherefore,  if  God  so  clothe  the  grass  of  the  field  which  to-day 
is,  and  to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  oven,  shall  He  not  much 
more  clothe  you,  O  ye  of  little  faith. 

MATTHEW  6:   28-30. 

xcv 

Now,  faith  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the  evi 
dence  of  things  not  seen.  HEBREWS  1 1 : 1 . 

The  just  shall  live  by  faith.  ROMANS  1:17. 

XCVI 

I  cannot  believe  and  cannot  be  brought  to  believe,  that 
the  purpose  of  our  creation  is  fulfilled  by  our  short  existence 
here.  To  me  the  existence  of  another  world  is  a  necessary 
supplement  of  this  to  adjust  its  inequalities  and  imbue  it  with 
moral  significance.  THURLOW  WEED. 


76 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XCIV 

And  if  God  clothes  the  lilies  of  the  field 
With  raiment  fair,  and  if  no  sparrow  yield 
Its  life  but  that  the  Father  knows  its  fall, 
Shall  not  He  then  His  trusting  children  shield? 

xcv 

I  had  much  rather  walk  with  God  at  night 
Than  stroll  alone  within  the  brightest  light. 
I'd  rather  lean  on  God  than  stand  alone; 
'Tis  better  far  to  walk  by  Faith  than  sight. 

XCVI 

And  if  this  infant  Life  of  ours  is  all, 
And  if  there  be  but  Naught  beyond  the  pall, 
If  longings  for  the  After-life  be  vain, 
Fate  holds  our  spirits  in  a  bitter  thrall ! 


77 


NOTES 


XCVII 

The  question,  then,  is  reduced  to  this:  Are  man's  highest 
spiritual  qualities,  into  the  production  of  which  all  this  creative 
energy  has  gone,  to  disappear  with  the  rest?  Has  all  this  work 
been  done  for  nothing?  Is  it  all  ephemeral,  all  a  bubble  that 
bursts,  a  vision  that  fades?  are  we  to  regard  the  Creator's  work 
as  like  that  of  a  child,  who  builds  houses  out  of  blocks  just  for 
the  pleasure  of  knocking  them  down? 

FISKE — Destiny  of  Man. 

XCVIII 

I  had  rather  believe  all  the  fables  of  the  Legend  and  the 
Talmud  and  the  Alcoran  than  that  this  universal  frame  is  with 
out  a  mind:  and  therefore  God  never  wrought  a  miracle  to 
convince  atheism,  because  His  ordinary  works  convinceth.  It 
is  true  that  a  little  philosophy  inclineth  man's  mind  to  atheism, 
but  depth  in  philosophy  bringeth  men's  minds  about  to  religion. 

BACON — Essays  on  Atheism. 

XCIX 

The  design  argument  is  wholly  grounded  on  experience. 
Certain  qualities,  it  is  alleged,  are  found  to  be  characteristic  of 
such  things  as  are  made  by  an  intelligent  mind  for  a  purpose. 
The  order  of  nature,  or  some  considerable  parts  of  it,  exhibit 
this  quality  in  a  remarkable  degree. 

JOHN  STUART  MILL — Religion. 
78 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


XCVII 

Fill  to  the  brim  the  cup  of  fierce  desire, 
For  freezing  man  light  up  the  craved-for  fire, 
Then  quench  the  flame,  and  dash  the  cup  to  earth, 
But  burn  not  hope  on  such  a  dismal  pyre ! 

XCVIII 

'Tis  strange  that  men  could  ever  be  such  fools 
As  not  to  know  a  Joiner  by  his  tools ; 
Could  spell  the  story  of  the  Universe, 
Could  learn  its  laws,  and  overlook  Who  rules ! 

XCIX 

More  strange  so  keen  an  Eye  were  yet  so  blind 
As  not  to  see  in  earth  a  thing  designed ; 
Can  Wisdom  think  the  Mighty  Worlds  in  Space 
All  came  by  Chance  as  listless  as  the  Wind  ? 


79 


NOTES 


We  arc  entitled,  from  the  great  similarity  in  its  effects,  to 
infer  similarity  in  the  cause,  and  to  believe  that  things  which  it 
is  beyond  the  power  of  man  to  make,  but  which  resemble 
works  of  man  in  all  but  power,  must  also  have  been  made  by 
Intelligence,  armed  with  a  power  greater  than  human. 

JOHN  STUART  MILL — Religion. 

CI 

Seeing  the  snake  cast  its  old  slough  and  glide  forth  renewed, 
he  conceives  so  in  death,  man  but  sheds  his  fleshy  exuviae, 
while  the  spirit  emerges  regenerate.  He  beholds  the  beetle 
break  from  its  filthy  sepulcher  and  commence  its  summer  work, 
and  straightway  he  hangs  a  golden  scarabasus  in  the  temples  as 
an  emblem  of  a  future  life. 

ALGER — Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life. 

CII 

Indeed,  most  of  the  analogies  from  our  daily  observation 
of  the  laws  of  the  physical  universe  lead  inevitably  to  the  con 
clusion  that  "if  a  man  dies  he  does  not  live  again."  For  it  is 
a  fact  within  the  experience  of  the  most  superficial  observer 
that  Nature  constantly  follows  the  one  routine — birth,  growth, 
maturity,  decay,  death. 

HUDSON — Demonstration  of  a  Future  Life. 


80 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


The  globe,  that  stands  within  the  college  hall, 
A  tiny  image  of  this  earthly  ball, 
Though  but  a  copy,  was  designed  by  Man ; 
Did  no  one  make  the  globe  original  ? 

THE    DOUBTER  I  CI 

Nature  herself  a  future  life  foretells ; 
In  chrysalis  the  sleeping  pupa  dwells, 
The  transformed  worm  will  rise  a  butterfly; 
The  seed  when  sown  a  greater  harvest  swells. 

THE  DISBELIEVER:  CII 

Though  worm  and  grub  the  dragon-fly  precede, 
The  new-born  fly  must  still  repeat  the  breed; 
So  Nature  turns  the  Wheel  of  Life  around ; 
The  germ  that  dies  is  not  the  garnered  seed. 


81 


NOTES 


cm 

For  verily  I  say  unto  you,  till  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass 
away,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  from  the  law, 
till  all  be  fulfilled.  MATTHEW  5:18. 


CIV 

Many  erroneous  beliefs  of  that  character  have  their  origin 
in  the  defective  development  of  the  understanding,  such  as  is 
natural  to  savages  and  children.  Witness,  for  example,  the 
superstitions  of  ill  omens  which  have  so  strong  a  hold  on  bar 
barous  peoples,  and  indeed  are  not  extinct  in  the  most  enlight 
ened  communities.  MAUDSLEY — Body  and  Will. 


cv 

For  if  the  universal  law  of  gravitation  is  the  Divine  mode 
of  the  sustention  of  the  universe,  the  no  less  universal  law  of 
evolution  is  the  Divine  process  of  creation. 

LE  CONTE — Evolution. 


82 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


THE  DEVOTEE:  CIII 

What  all  men  everywhere  have  always  thought 
Is  right.     The  Faith  for  which  our  fathers  fought, 
The  God  of  Truth,  the  Word,  Eternal  Life, 
Cannot  through  juggling  logic  shrink  to  Naught. 


THE    DISBELIEVER  I  CIV 

The  childhood  of  mankind  had  childish  fears 
And  foolish  fancies  fit  for  fickle  years ; 
But  ghost  and  goblin,  witch  and  demon,  sprite 
And  fairy,  no  one  any  more  reveres. 

CV 

The  sinuous  stream  that  swiftly  seaward  glides, 
Hemmed  in  with  hills  that  hedge  its  verdant  sides, 
Along  the  line  of  least  resistance  flows; 
The  law  of  gravitation  thus  provides. 


83 


NOTES 


CVI 

The  old  argument  from  design  in  Nature  as  given  by  Paley, 
which  formerly  seemed  to  me  so  conclusive,  fails,  now  that 
the  law  of  selection  has  been  discovered.  We  can  no  longer 
argue  that,  for  instance,  the  beautiful  hinge  of  a  bivalve  shell 
must  have  been  made  by  an  intelligent  being,  like  the  hinge  of 
a  door  by  man.  There  seems  to  be  no  more  design  in  the 
variability  of  organic  beings,  and  in  the  action  of  natural  selec 
tion,  than  in  the  course  which  the  wind  blows. 

DARWIN — Life  and  Letters. 

CVII 

Whatever  additional  factors  may  be  added  to  natural  selec 
tion — and  Darwin  himself  fully  admitted  that  there  might  be 
others — the  theory  of  an  evolution  process  in  the  formation  of 
the  universe  and  of  animate  nature  is  established,  and  the  old 
theory  of  direct  creation  is  gone  forever. 

WHITE — Warfare  of  Science  and  Theology. 

CVIII 

Evolution  as  a  process  is  not  confined  to  one  thing,  the 
egg,  nor  as  a  doctrine  is  it  confined  to  one  department  of 
science,  biology.  The  process  pervades  the  whole  universe, 
and  the  doctrine  concerns  alike  every  department  of  science — 
yea,  every  department  of  human  thought. 

LE  CONTE — Evolution. 
84 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


CVI 

The  line  of  least  resistance  is  the  groove 
In  which  all  things  in  Nature  ever  move, 
Self-acting  and  impelled  by  Force  to  act ; 
Does  vibrant  matter  a  Designer  prove  ? 

CVII 

Though  long  this  crucial  question  was  revolved, 
By  careful  study  man  the  problem  solved ; 
"  Special  creation  "  is  a  myth  of  Cult, 
All  things  are  slowly  step  by  step  evolved. 

CVIII 

This  key  doth  secrets  of  the  World  unlock, 
This  Truth  is  stamped  upon  the  solid  rock, 
Urania  wrote  the  story  in  the  stars, 
None  but  a  dolt  such  evidence  could  mock. 


85 


NOTES 

CIX 

Thus  identical  in  physical  processes  by  which  he  originated 
— identical  in  the  early  stages  of  his  formation — identical  in 
the  mode  of  his  nutrition  before  and  after  birth  with  the  ani 
mals  which  lie  immediately  below  him  in  the  scale — man,  if 
adult  and  perfect  structure  be  compared  to  others,  exhibits,  as 
might  be  expected,  a  marvelous  likeness  of  organization. 

HUXLEY — Man's  Place  in  Nature. 

cx 

And  it  is  also  much  more  to  my  individual  taste  to  be  the 
more  highly  developed  descendant  of  a  primal  ape  ancestor,  who, 
in  the  struggle  for  existence,  had  developed  progressively  from 
lower  mammals,  as  they  from  still  lower  vertebrates,  than  to  be 
the  degraded  descendant  of  Adam,  God-like,  but  debased  by 
the  fall,  who  was  formed  from  a  clod  of  earth,  and  of  Eve, 
created  from  a  rib  of  man.  HAECKEL — Evolution  of  Man. 

CXI 

It  may  be  metaphorically  said,  that  natural  selection  is  daily 
and  hourly  scrutinizing,  throughout  the  world,  the  slightest  varia 
tion;  rejecting  those  that  are  bad,  preserving  and  adding  up  all 
that  are  good;  silently  and  insensibly  working,  whenever  and 
wherever  opportunity  offers,  at  the  improvement  of  each  organic 
being  in  relation  to  its  organic  and  inorganic  conditions  of  life. 
We  see  nothing  of  these  slow  changes  in  progress  until  the  hand 
of  time  has  marked  the  lapse  of  ages,  and  so  imperfect  is  our 
view  into  long  past  geological  ages,  that  we  see  only  that  the 
forms  of  life  are  now  different  from  what  they  formerly  were. 

DARWIN — Origin  of  Species. 
86 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


CIX 

Man's  embryonic  life  the  story  tells, 

How  rose  the  race  from  out  primordial  cells; 

His  upward  course  is  an  epitome 

Of  ev'ry  kind  of  Life  on  earth  that  dwells. 

CX 

This  truth  of  science,  the  Descent  of  man — 
The  crown  that  caps  great  Darwin's  noble  plan- 
Proclaims  a  gospel  born  of  proven  fact 
That  kills  the  curse  that  comes  of  Adam's  ban. 

CXI 

The  abler  to  the  wall  the  weaker  drives, 
The  fittest  tree  best  in  the  forest  thrives ; 
In  the  struggle  for  existence  this  is  true: 
"  What  survives  is  fit,  what  is  fit  survives." 


87 


NOTES 


CXII 

Est  profecto  Deus  qui  quae  gerimus  auditque  et  videt. 
There  is  indeed  a  God  that  hears  and  sees  whatever  we  do. 

PLAUTUS. 

CXIII 

For  that  which  befalleth  the  sons  of  men  befalleth  beasts; 
even  one  thing  befalleth  them:  as  the  one  dieth,  so  dieth  the 
other;  yea,  they  have  all  one  breath;  so  that  a  man  hath  no 
pre-eminence  above  a  beast:  for  all  is  vanity.  All  go  unto  one 
place;  all  are  of  the  dust,  and  all  turn  to  dust  again. 

ECCLESIASTES  3:19,    2O. 

CXIV 

Take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry. 

LUKE  12:  19. 
Wine  that  maketh  glad  the  heart  of  man. 

PSALMS  104:  15. 

Sublime  tobacco,  which  from  East  to  West 
Cheers  the  tar's  labor  or  the  Turk  man's  rest. 

BYRON — The  Island. 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


THE  DEVOTEE:  CXII 

Not  for  the  nonce  the  clock  of  Time  was  wound, 
Nor  did  the  Lord  fall  into  sleep  profound 
And  wait  eternal  morn,  for  e'er  His  eye 
Keeps  vigil,  and  His  ear  hears  ev'ry  sound. 

THE  DISBELIEVER:  CXIII 

Hedged  in  with  barriers  of  frowning  height, 
With  neither  source  nor  misty  end  in  sight, 
The  stream  of  Life  flows  in  its  winding  maze 
To  seek  the  self-same  Sea  whence  came  its  might. 

CXIV 

Who  deems  it  wrong  to  quaff  the  ruby  wine, 
Who  burns  no  incense  at  Nicotia's  shrine, 
Who  robs  his  plate  to  feed  a  hungry  church, 
Would  make  the  song  of  Life  a  dismal  whine. 


89 


NOTES 


CXV 

O  love,  young  love,  bound  in  thy  rosy  band, 
Let  sage  or  cynic  prattle  as  he  will, 
These  hours,  and  only  these,  redeem  life's  years  of  ill. 

BYRON— Childe  Harold. 


CXVI 

I  sat  down  under  his  shadow  with  great  delight.  And  his 
fruit  was  sweet  to  my  taste.  SONG  OF  SONGS  2:14. 

Let  him  kiss  me  with  the  kisses  of  his  mouth,  for  thy  love 
is  better  than  wine.  SONG  OF  SONGS  1 :  2. 


CXVII 

The  pleasure  of  love  is  in  loving.      We  are  happier  in  the 
passion  we  feel  than  in  what  we  inspire. 

ROCHEFOUCAULD — Maxims. 


90 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


cxv 

Ah,  give  me  Love  that  ever  smiling  gleams, 
That  from  the  Dark  this  cheerless  world  redeems, 
Ah,  may  my  Moon  of  Love  forget  to  wane, 
And  light  me  ever  with  its  lambent  beams. 

CXVI 

Love  bears  a  fruit  far  sweeter  than  the  Vine, 
Love  brews  a  nectar  that  surpasses  Wine ; 
But  who  can  tell  the  Soul's  o'erwhelming  bliss 
When  Vine  and  Love  the  willing  heart  entwine. 

CXVI  I 

How  cling  the  tendrils  of  their  fond  caress 
As  to  the  lips  the  luscious  cup  they  press ! 
Ah,  I  could  drink  and  drain  the  vintage  dry 
And  die  in  arms  of  loving  tenderness ! 


NOTES 


CXVIII 

Love,  pleasant  as  it  is,  pleases  even  more  by  the  ways  in 
which  it  shows  itself  than  by  itself. 

ROCHEFOUCAULD — Maxims. 


CXIX 

Come,  come;  good  wine  is  a  good  familiar  creature,  if  it 
be  well  used;  exclaim  no  more  against  it. 

SHAKESPEARE — Othello. 


cxx 

He  who  forsakes  God  for  a  greater  liberty  is  like  a  babe  lost 
from  its  mother.  They  who  refrain  from  God  for  the  sake  of 
pleasure  are  like  men  running  from  the  free  air  to  seek  sunlight 
amid  shadows  and  darkness.  They  who  withdraw  from  God 
that  they  may  have  wider  circuit  of  power  are  like  birds  that 
forsake  the  forest  and  fly  within  the  fowler's  cage  to  find  a 
larger  bound  and  wider  liberty.  BEECHER. 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


CXVIII 

The  wine  that  sparkles  and  the  merry  song, 
The  Queen  of  Love  that  rules  the  happy  throng, 
The  dainty  Dancers  and  the  pleasing  play — 
All  sweets  of  life — are  all  such  pleasures  wrong? 

CXIX 

And  why  need  Virtue  wear  so  sour  a  mien  ? 

And  cry — when  Pleasures  come — "  Unclean,  unclean 

The  sin  of  Pleasure  is  excess  alone; 

'Tis  the  abuse  that  doth  the  man  demean. 


THE  DEVOTEE:  CXX 

The  glutton,  drunkard,  and  the  libertine 
Such  sentiments  as  these  would  gladly  glean. 
From  sensual  pleasures  of  the  Appetite 
Naught  but  the  Grace  of  God  the  soul  can  wean. 


93 


NOTES 


CXXI 

Murder  most  foul,  as  in  the  best  it  is, 
But  this  most  foul,  strange,  and  unnatural. 

SHAKESPEARE — Hamlet. 


CXXII 

Faith  is  a  higher  faculty  than  reason. 

BAILEY — Festus. 

Unbelief  is  blind.  MILTON. 

CXXIII 

So,  too,  must  die  out  the  belief  that  a  Power,  present  in 
innumerable  worlds  throughout  space,  and  during  millions  of 
years  of  the  earth's  earlier  existence  needed  no  honoring  by  its 
inhabitants,  should  be  seized  with  a  craving  for  praise;  and  hav 
ing  created  mankind,  should  be  angry  with  them  should  they 
not  perpetually  tell  him  how  great  he  is. 

SPENCER — Sociology . 


94 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


CXXI 

To  murder  Faith  is  Satan's  blackest  art ; 

To  force  my  soul  from  Christ  its  Lord  to  part, 

To  wander  in  the  waste  of  Unbelief 

Would  wring  the  life-blood  from  my  wretched  heart. 

CXXII 

For  gold  of  Faith  what  give  you  man  instead  ? 
The  dross  of  so-called  Science  ?      Better  dead 
Than  live  in  wicked  Infidelity! 
How  could  the  hunger  of  the  soul  be  fed ! 

THE  DISBELIEVER:  CXXIII 

And  why  must  man  a  phantom  God  adore 

In  willful  waste  his  love  libation  pour, 

And  spend  in  vain  his  time  and  wealth  and  lore, 

When  burdened  man  has  need  of  them  much  more? 


95 


NOTES 


CXXIV 

Superstition  is  a  senseless  fear  of  God.  CICERO. 

cxxv 

A  sentiment  of  submission  to  the  decrees  of  Providence,  who 
is  destiny  personified,  has  been  the  excuse  of  every  form  of 
indolence,  of  every  cowardly  adherence  to  custom.  *  *  But 
efficiency  to  aid  oneself  demands  initiative  and  audacity,  and  a 
spirit  of  revolt  against  an  unwelcome  course  of  things;  efficiently 
to  aid  oneself  one  must  not  say,  "God's  will  be  done,"  but, 
"My  will  be  done." 

GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 

CXXVI 

I  find  no  evidence  that  seriously  militates  against  the  rule 
that  the  priest  at  all  times  and  in  all  places  is  the  enemy  of  all 
men.  Sacerdos  semper  ubique  et  omnibus  inimicus. 

CLIFFORD — Ethics  of  Religion. 


96 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


CXXIV 

And  when  the  Surgeon  with  the  skillful  knife 
Has  cut  the  cancer  to  preserve  the  life, 
Puts  he  aught  in  its  place  ?     Theology 
Is  such  a  growth  with  Superstition  rife. 

cxxv 

Religion  tends  to  raise  a  weakly  breed, 
For  self-reliance  substitutes  a  reed, 
It  makes  the  Faithful  lean  upon  his  God, 
And  dubs  it  Sin  to  by  one's  self  succeed. 

CXXVI 

It  puts  its  priests  upon  despotic  thrones, 

It  builds  its  churches  from  hard  quarried  stones, 

Palatial  prisons  of  man's  Liberty. 

It  swarms  the  hive  with  non-producing  drones. 


97 


NOTES 


But  faith,  fanatic  faith,  once  wedded  fast 
To  some  dear  falsehood,  hugs  it  to  the  last. 

THOMAS  MOORE — Lalla  Rookh. 

Ignorance  is  the  mother  of  devotion.    JEREMY  TAYLOR. 


CXXVIII 

With  devotion's  visage, 
And  pious  action,  we  do  sugar  o'er 
The  devil  himself. 

SHAKESPEARE — Hamlet. 

CXXIX 

It  was  physical  fear,  timor,  and  not  moral  reverence,  which 
gave  being  to  the  first  gods.  *  *  *  The  germ  of  immorality, 
therefore,  not  less  than  of  morality,  lies  at  the  root  of  every  reli 
gion.  *  *  *  One  may  verify  in  every  religion  what  is  observed 
in  Christianity,  that  the  truly  moral  God  is  precisely  the  man- 
God,  Jesus,  whereas  God,  the  Father,  who  pitilessly  sacrifices 
his  own  son,  is  anti-human  and  immoral,  precisely  in  that  he  is 
superhuman.  GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 


98 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


CXXVII 

Within  its  fane  there  dwells  the  Sycophant, 
It  is  the  swamp  whence  oozes  whining  Cant, 
There  rankly  grows  the  weed  of  bigotry 
Whose  dark  shade  keeps  the  people  ignorant. 

CXXVII  I 

Its  Votary  oft  fills  a  craven  part, 
However  may  his  restive  conscience  smart 
To  basely  play  the  smooth-tongued  Hypocrite, 
He  must  with  iron  dogmas  bind  his  heart. 

CXXIX 

No  wrong  is  right,  no  matter  from  what  view, 
Nor  straight  is  that  that  has  been  built  askew, 
As  bends  the  twig  so  grows  the  tree.     Religion 
Immoral  is,  because  it  is  not  true. 


99 


NOTES 


CXXX 

The  absorption  of  religion  into  morality  is  one  with  the 
dissolution  of  all  positive  and  determinate  religion,  of  all  tradi 
tional  symbolism,  and  all  dogmatism.  Faith,  said  Heraclitus, 
is  a  sacred  malady,  hpa  voaos.  For  us  moderns  it  is  no  longer 
a  sacred  malady,  and  it  is  one  from  which  all  of  us  wish  to  be 
delivered  at  last. 

GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 

CXXXI 

At  some  certain  moment  in  its  history  it  (religion)  falls  of 
its  own  weight  with  the  disappearance  of  the  pretended  evi 
dences  on  which  it  was  resting;  it  does  not,  properly  speaking, 
die;  it  ceases  simply — becomes  extinct.  It  will  cease  defi 
nitely  when  it  shall  have  become  useless,  and  there  is  no  longer 
obligation  to  replace  what  is  no  longer  necessary. 

GUYAU — Non-Religion  of  the  Future. 

CXXXII 

A  living  dog  is  better  than  a  dead  lion.  For  the  living 
know  that  they  shall  die,  but  the  dead  know  not  anything, 
neither  have  they  any  more  reward;  for  the  memory  of  them 
is  forgotten.  ECCLESIASTES  9:45. 

Whatsoever  thy  hand  find  to  do,  do  it  with  thy  might,  for 
there  is  no  work,  no  device,  nor  knowledge  in  the  grave, 
whither  thou  goest.  ECCLESIASTES  9:10. 

100 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


cxxx 

From  Rites  to  Reason  e'er  the  race  proceeds 
With  measured  tread  unless  crass  Faith  impedes. 
Morality's  right  conduct  of  the  soul, 
Religion's  but  conformity  to  Creeds. 

CXXXI 

Religion's  part  on  earth  was  to  police 
Unruly  people  for  the  sake  of  peace, 
But  since  mankind  no  longer  needs  its  guard, 
'Tis  time  that  Reason  bid  its  burdens  cease. 

CXXXII 

'Tis  natural  the  heart  should  yearn  to  live 
Again,  and  cling  to  all  that  Faith  can  give 
To  light  the  dark  Unknown,  but  all  in  vain, 
Religious  Hope  sips  nectar  from  a  sieve. 


101 


NOTES 


CXXXIII 

The  law  of  evolution  holds  of  the  inner  world  as  it  does  of 
the  outer  world.  On  tracing  up  from  its  low  and  vague  begin 
ning  the  intelligence  which  becomes  so  marvelous  in  the  high 
est  beings,  we  find  that  under  whatever  aspect  contemplated, 
it  presents  a  progressive  transformation  of  like  nature  with  the 
progressive  transformation  we  trace  in  the  Universe  as  a  whole, 
no  less  than  each  of  its  parts.  SPENCER — Psychology. 

CXXXIV 

The  human  brain  is  an  organized  register  of  infinitely 
numerous  experiences.  *  *  *  The  effects  of  the  most 
uniform  and  frequent  of  these  experiences  have  been  succes 
sively  bequeathed,  principal  and  interest;  and  have  slowly 
amounted  to  that  high  intelligence  which  lies  latent  in  the  brain 
of  the  infant — which  the  infant  in  after  life  exercises  and  per 
haps  strengthens  and  further  complicates — and  which  with 
minute  additions  it  bequeaths  to  future  generations. 

SPENCER — Psychology. 

cxxxv 

Each  unprejudiced  and  searching  test  applied  to  the  action 
of  our  "free  will"  shows  that  the  latter  is  never  really  free, 
but  is  always  determined  by  previous  causal  conditions,  which 
are  eventually  referable  either  to  heredity  or  to  adaptation. 

HAECKEL — Evolution  of  Man. 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


CXXXIII 

Without  our  will  we  into  life  were  thrust, 
Against  our  wish  we  die  and  turn  to  dust, 
Ourselves,  our  thoughts,  our  hopes,  beliefs,  and  fears 
Are  restless  children  of  a  mighty  Must. 

CXXXIV 

As  we  have  sown,  so  shall  we  also  reap. 
So  shall  our  children  laugh  or  shall  they  weep. 
We  garner  what  our  fathers  long  have  strewn, 
For  deeds,  like  seeds,  a  close  resemblance  keep. 

cxxxv 

Five  sextants  of  the  Round  of  life  are  ruled 
By  Nature,  and  the  sixth  by  Nurture 's  schooled. 
Heredity  transmits  from  sire  to  son 
The  trends  and  traits  that  usage  stronger  molds. 


103 


NOTES 


CXXXVI 

The  will  is  not  determined  by  motive,  but  by  cause — that 
is  to  say,  by  the  sum  of  conditions,  passive  and  active,  on  which 
the  event  follows;  in  other  words,  it  has  antecedents,  not  only 
the  motives  of  which  we  are  conscious,  but  the  motive  energies 
that  are  active  below  the  threshold  of  consciousness. 

MAUDSLEY — Body  and  Will. 


CXXXVII 

All  the  forces  at  work  there  can  be  reduced  at  last  to 
growth — to  the  fundamental  function  of  evolution,  by  which 
the  forms  of  inorganic  as  well  as  organic  bodies  originate. 

HAECKEL — Evolution  of  Man. 


CXXXVIII 

No  action,  whether  foul  or  fair, 
Is  ever  done  but  it  leaves  somewhere 
A  record,  written  by  fingers  ghostly, 
As  a  blessing  or  a  curse. 

LONGFELLOW — Christus. 


104 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


CXXXVI 

Strive  e'er  so  hard  with  e'er  so  patient  skill 
To  make  your  world  to  answer  to  your  will, 
But  little  will  your  efforts  change  the  Must, 
Relentless  Fate  will  shape  the  outcome  still. 

CXXXVII 

And  yet  that  Little  makes  the  All  of  gain, 
And  breeds  a  better  brawn  and  brighter  brain. 
To-day's  "  I  will  "  to-morrow  is  "  I  must," 
A  self-wrought  link  in  Life's  predestined  chain. 

CXXXVI  1 1 

There  blows  no  breeze  but  scatters  far  the  down, 
That  shall  some  distant  field  with  verdure  gown, 
Be  harvest  weed  or  plant,  the  crop  is  sure. 
And  thus  our  deeds  are  ever  widely  sown. 


105 


NOTES 


CXXXIX 

No  act  of  a  man,  no  thing  (how  much  less  the  man  him 
self),  is  extinguished  when  it  disappears,  through  considerable 
time  it  still  works,  though  done  and  vanished.  CARLYLE. 


106 


THE   APISTOPHILON 


CXXXIX 

Then  cultivate  the  plants  and  cut  the  weeds, 
And  grow  a  crop  of  Worth  from  noble  deeds, 
So  when  the  Harvest  of  our  Life  is  gleaned 
The  World  shall  profit,  for  we  sowed  good  seeds. 


107 


EPILOGUE 


An  atom  in  immensity,  a  moment  in  eternity,  a  single 
pulse,  so  to  speak,  in  the  flux  of  life  upon  earth,  man  cannot 
transcend  the  narrow  limits  of  his  small  capacity;  can  only 
reflect  in  knowledge  more  or  less  adequately  the  minute  spot 
of  space,  the  brief  moment  of  time,  in  which  he  is,  can  know 
little  more  in  the  end  than  how  little  it  is  that  he  can  ever 
know,  how  infinitely  much  he  can  never  know. 

MAUDSLEY — Body  and  Will. 


108 


Epilogue 


So  long  I  parry  arguments  with  skill, 
And  pros  and  cons  consider  at  my  will. 
The  great  Enigma  that  e'er  racks  the  brain 
Cannot  be  solved  by  man,  until — until  ? 


109 


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